Director Michael Strassen’s stated aim with this “21st century production” of the classic pop musical Godspell is to appeal to everyone from “a Baptist to Richard Dawkins” and, as someone who falls squarely into the Dawkins camp, I have to say he generally succeeds.
This is a resolutely modern show, referencing everything from WAGs to Justin Bieber to Beyoncé, and for the most part this works well, adding a vibrancy and humour to material that could otherwise be po-faced – although some of the swearing feels added on for effect. (Those fearing this makes the show too much like a ‘yoof theatre’ production should be reassured there are jokes aplenty for those of us over the age of 30: a vision of hell being populated by Loyd Grossmans raises a laugh, and the Julie Walters-inspired routine is one of the evening’s comic highlights).
The youthful cast are impressive. As Jesus, Billy Cullum is the standout. He calls to mind a younger Jonathan Groff – never a bad thing – and is a convincing mix of sensuality, otherworldliness and charisma, with just the right sprinkling of smugness and self-righteousness thrown in, so that you can completely believe he’s a leader others would gladly follow. Doing double duty as Judas and John, Davis Brooks manages to be persuasive as the prophet whose traditionalist ideas are overthrown by the man who supersedes him, and as the guilt-ridden betrayer.
Sophie Isaacs as Joanne brings plenty of humour to her Only Way is Essex persona, but with a visible fragility beneath the brassy facade, while Caroline Hubbard, Jill Armour, Madalena Alberto and Natalie Green each, in their own way, manage to distinguish their roles with very little to work with in terms of characterisation, giving them more emotional clout than the writing perhaps deserves.
For the boys, Jeremy Batt makes a promising debut, and together with Daryl Armstrong and Iwan Lewis, veers skilfully between drama and broad comedy, though the scene of Jesus’ capture does descend too quickly into overwrought hysteria, threatening to tip it unintentionally into the latter.
As an ensemble, the cast are enormously engaging, even if, occasionally, they seem a little too aware of that fact, giving the show the air of a break out routine in a stage school canteen. Overall, though, they channel their exuberance well and play off one another in a hundred tiny but well-thought out ways, adding real pace and zest to the production. Michael Bradley’s musical direction meshes the performances well, though the voices tend toward able rather than amazing, making the ensemble numbers stronger than the solos – although Brooks’ ‘Prepare ye the Way of the Lord ‘is suitably rousing, and Natalie Green’s rendition of ‘Day by Day’ is moving and well-done.
The stripped-to-the-bone set works well with the new material – a simple stage and contemporary clothes get across the modernity of the message – and praise must go to lighting director Steve Miller for the evocative lighting.
The main problem, in fact, is the limitation of the source material itself. While some numbers have stood the test of time, the songs are slightly hit and miss and, until the action ratchets up in the inevitably darker second half, the show mainly consists of a series of parables loosely strung together; sporadically amusing but an unsatisfying whole.
It’s admirable, then, that this update succeeds as well as it does. It manages to apply a gloss of smart, slick modernity to the show which brings out the humour without damaging the heart, and in doing so creates and entertaining and ultimately uplifting evening.